Alan Cooper in his great book "About Face," declares that the number one goal of a computer user is... to not look stupid. The software we write should help them achieve this.

There are at least 16 levels of help to offer users of your software application. I suggest that at least half of these are necessary to make an application truly user-friendly.

1. Screen Title - Answers the question "Where am I and what am I doing?" Don't depend on the title bar. Give the page or form itself a nice big title to give the user a proper context.
2. Group/Section Title - This describes a small set of data on the screen as a logical unit that hangs together. Examples: "Address", "Billing Information"
3. Field Label - The immediate descriptor of the data field, usually to the left or above the data. Avoid abbreviations unless they are very common, such as SSN.
4. Format Mask - These help the user space their entry or read it easier once it has been entered. Examples: Date (__/__/__), SSN (___-__-____).
5. Default Value - Fill in today's date if that's the most likely date or remember the most recent entry the user put in this field on the last record.
6. Color - Indicate importance or meaning. Example: Red asterisk by a required field. Use color sparingly to avoid making your screen look like an angry fruit salad.
7. Mouse Help - Extra tips or explanations appear when the user hovers over an object with the mouse.
8. Sound - A beep lets users know that your application wants their attention. Don't beep without a reason. Short, soft clicks and swishes can sometimes be a pleasant way of confirming that something has happened.
9. On-screen Help - Text near the field may explain its use. Example: "MM/DD/YYYY"
10. Pop-up Help - Clicking a special symbol (like "?") nearby or right-clicking an object can provide field-level help or a context-sensitive menu.
11. What's This? - A special button in the toolbar, once activated, changes the cursor into a pointer with a "?" that can be used to explain other items on the screen by clicking the mouse on them.
12. Help Contents (F1) - An online manual provides definitions and how-to help. It always opens to the first page which is usually a table of contents.
13. Context Help (F1) - If the currently active control has specific help available, pressing F1 can bring up a help dialog that is specific to the needs of that one field.
14. Printed Manual - Sometimes customized, but often the same contents as the online help. Tools such as RoboHelp and DocToHelp make this dual-help system easy to produce.
15. Training - Classroom or on site, this personal instruction will likely take users through the manual with hands-on exercises. The result of such an invest by the users will be a higher degree of satisfaction as they use the software more effectively.
16. Video - Instructional video can substitute for classroom training if the application is not terribly complex. Complicated applications require Q&A with an instructor to keep the users from getting lost.